Want to Know a Secret? (32)

“I’m Nancy.” She smiles disarmingly. “Doris Kirkland was my aunt. You and I met while I was selling the house.”

“Oh!” I return her smile. “I thought you looked familiar.” I look back at Bobby, who is still in the backseat and messing around with his backpack. He always takes forever to get out of the car. “How are you doing?”

“Can’t complain.” Nancy shifts her oversized purse to her other arm. “Listen, I got a call from the new owners of the house, and they said they found one of Aunt Doris’s boxes up in their attic. They told me I could pick it up. But…” She casts a glance at the darkened windows of the Cooper residence. “Do you know when they’ll be back?”

I assume Maria is working this afternoon because Sean was the one who picked up Owen. They’re probably still at the park.

“I’m not sure, sorry.” I open the car door for Bobby, who still isn’t budging. “Maybe an hour or two?”

She nods thoughtfully. “Are they nice people?”

“Yes. They are.”

She smiles crookedly. “Nicer than Aunt Doris, I’m sure.”

I laugh. “Oh, she was interesting.”

“Now you’re being nice.” Nancy shakes her head. “Aunt Doris was a mean old lady. And she was proud of it!”

I tug at my jacket. Mrs. Kirkland was a bit grumpy at times, but I always chalked it up to her being lonely. Also, it didn’t help that practically all of Bobby’s balls ended up in her yard. You would think just by chance, some of them would not end up in her yard.

“My sister and I were sure she was going to live forever,” Nancy continues. “We had a bet going that she would make it till a hundred. People like her always do. She probably would have if she had been wearing her life alert necklace.” She clucks her tongue. “I can’t imagine why she took it off.”

I frown. “Life alert necklace?”

“Oh, you know.” Nancy lifts a shoulder. “That button you press if you’ve fallen and you can’t get up. She was so pleased with herself for having gotten one, but then she wasn’t even wearing it when she fell down the stairs. It was stuffed in a drawer in her bedroom.”

A shiver goes down my spine. “Was that unusual for her?”

“It was. She was so anal about always wearing it.” Nancy tilts her head to the side. “She was scared about breaking a hip, you know? I couldn’t believe she didn’t have it on. If this were a movie, I’d say for sure somebody pushed her.”

I have a horrible sinking feeling in my stomach. I think I might be sick.

“I’m just kidding,” Nancy says quickly when she sees my face. “I’m sure she just forgot. She was ninety-six, after all!” She takes her phone out of her bag, looks at the screen, then stuffs it back in. “Anyway, I can’t wait any longer. If you see the Coopers, tell them I’ll try to come back later tonight.”

My head is spinning as I watch Nancy get back into her car. That was an incredibly disturbing conversation. Everyone on the block assumed poor Mrs. Kirkland had just taken an innocent spill down the stairs. She was ninety-six, after all, as Nancy said.

Elderly people fall. It doesn’t have to be something sinister.





Chapter 19


Comment on April’s Sweet Secrets YouTube video:



In every episode of the show, April says goodnight to her mother. Want to know a secret about April?



She hates her mother.




A few times a year, my mother guest stars on my show.

It’s a bit of a challenge, to say the least. She is pretty out of it these days. But at the same time, she gets a huge kick out of helping me with cooking. I tell her exactly what to do—mix this, pour that—and she does it for me. The viewers love these shows. I get so many positive comments and usually a big uptick in hits.

That’s why I want to do a show with my mother now. I’ve been getting so many negative comments lately. I desperately need some positivity right now.

Shady Oaks Nursing Home is about a forty-minute drive from our house. There were closer nursing homes, but I liked the feel of this one. When I walked in, I just got the vibe that it was a place my mother would like. It was expensive, but I was willing to pay anything. It’s for my mother, after all. She deserves the best.

Unfortunately, my life has been so crazy lately, I only manage to visit once a month. Sometimes less. I feel guilty about it, but most of the time my mom is so out of it that she hardly even notices when I come. And I make sure the nurses play my show for her every night. I even bought her an iPad so she could watch it.

Shady Oaks has over a hundred beds, and it’s a large, new-looking building of two stories with trees dotting the entrance. Not that the residents seem to spend much time outdoors. I had imagined my mother sitting outside on the lawn, but in all the times I’ve visited, I’ve yet to see one resident enjoying a sunny day.

To get inside the facility, you have to press a red button, which unlocks the front door. In order to leave, you have to punch in a four-digit code. Shady Oaks has a dedicated memory care unit, and it’s not uncommon for those patients to try to escape. Fortunately, none of them can remember the code.

I head over to Shady Oaks with Bobby after school the next day. In one hand, I’ve got my camera and tripod, and in the other, I’ve got a grocery bag filled to the brim with ingredients.